Life in pics of great actor Shashi Kapoor

Shashi Kapoor’s childhood pictureShashi Kapoor was born in Calcutta during the British Raj. He was the third and youngest son of Prithviraj Kapoor, the younger brother of Raj Kapoor and Shammi Kapoor, husband of Jennifer Kendal who passed away early in life and the father of Karan Kapoor, Kunal Kapoor, and Sanjana Kapoor.

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Shashi Kapoor with his complete family on Shammi Kapoor’s weddingShashi Kapoor acted in plays, directed and produced by his father Prithviraj Kapoor, while travelling with Prithvi Theatres. He took acting seriously from childhood itself and started working from 1940s by the name of Shashiraj.

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Shashi Kapoor with wife and sonKapoor studied in Don Bosco High School in Matunga, Mumbai. He met English actress Jennifer Kendal in Calcutta in 1956 while both were working for their respective theatre groups. After their frequent meetings the couple fell in love and after facing initial opposition from the Kendals and support from sister-in-law Geeta Bali, they got married in July 1958.

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Shashi Kapoor with his kidsThey acted in a number of films together, most notably in Merchant Ivory productions. They had three children: Kunal Kapoor, Karan Kapoor and Sanjana Kapoor. Jennifer and Shashi established Prithvi Theatre on 5 November 1978 in Mumbai. Jennifer died of cancer in 1984 which shattered him.

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Shashi Kapoor with brothersKapoor's children, for a short while, became Hindi film actors but their European looks and accented Hindi prevented them from having successful careers. His eldest son Kunal is married to director Ramesh Sippy's daughter.

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Shashi Kapoor with his complete familyKunal moved on to ad film direction and established his production house Adfilm-Valas which is today extremely successful. Shashi's daughter Sanjana, is a theatre personality and married to wildlife conservationist Valmik Thapar. They have a son named Hamir. Shashi's younger son Karan became successful in modeling and later settled down in London. He is an accomplished photographer

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Shashi Kapoor with Rishi Kapoor and Amitabh BachchanKapoor got an opportunity to work as an assistant director in the film Post Box 999, the debut film of Sunil Dutt, and worked as an assistant director to Ravindra Dave in Guest House, which was followed by movies such as Dulha Dulhan and Shriman Satyawadi, where Raj Kapoor was the lead hero.

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Shashi Kapoor with Neetu Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan and friends of film fraternityShashi Kapoor made his debut as a leading man in the 1961 film Dharmputra and went on to appear in 116 Hindi films, including 61 films as the solo lead hero and 55 multi star-cast films, 21 films as supporting actor and special appearances in 7 films.

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Shashi Kapoor with his extended familyHe was a very popular actor in Bollywood during the 60's, 70's and until the mid-80's. Kapoor's early films, Dharmputra, Prem Patra, and Char Diwari, were in Hindi. Since 1961, he started acting in English language films, which include The Householder and Shakespeare-Wallah. He was one of India's first actor to go international.

Shashi Kapoor with the males of his familyShashi Kapoor was 2nd highest paid Hindi actor, sharing the spot with Devanand from 1970-75 and 3rd third highest paid Hindi actor, sharing space with Vinod Khanna from 1976-82.The highest paid Indian actor was Rajesh Khanna from 1970-1987.

Recent picture of Shashi Kapoor with his extended familyShashi was paid more than co-actors Vinod Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan, Jeetendra, Rishi and Randhir Kapoor in multi-starrer films. However, Sanjeev Kumar, Pran and Dharmendra were paid at same rate as Shashi. Among all leading actors, only Rajesh Khanna was paid more than Shashi in the 2 films they acted together – Prem Kahani and Alag Alag.

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Shashi Kapoor receiving Dadasaheb Phalke AwardsIn 2011, he was honoured with the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India for his contributions to Art-Cinema. In 2015, he was awarded the 2014 Dadasaheb Phalke Award, making him the third member of his family to receive the highest award in Indian Cinema after Prithviraj Kapoor and Raj Kapoor.